Charleston's Oldest Commercial Building and the Nation's Longest Operating Liquor Store

On an early trip to Charleston many years ago, I stood on East Bay Street framing the colorful Georgian houses of Rainbow Row in the viewfinder of my camera. On the same corner, a young woman was making preparations to immortalize the pastel scene on canvas. Unknown to me at the time, the two of us were engaging in a popular tradition common to many of the city's locals and tourists. This well-known historic landmark of the French Quarter is for obvious reasons the most photographed and painted of the Holy City.

However, in the midst of this most recognizable attraction unassumingly sits the oldest commercial building in the Holy City with the added distinction of being the nation's longest-operating liquor store. Located just two blocks from the old city's bustling waterfront, this part of the original walled city of the late 1600's was anything but holy. It was the rompin', stompin' playground for pirates and den of iniquity for seafarer's. Members of Blackbeard's crew, not Blackbeard himself, more than likely prowled and drank liquor from this establishment along with Stede Bonnet and a host of other pirates, many of whom were hung a short distance away in White Point Gardens.

The Tavern at Rainbow Row dates as far back as 1686 according to discovered documents and maps found in Scotland and the Netherlands. Quite possibly Captain William Carse and crew of the Magdalen from Edinborough purchased liquor from the establishment in August of 1743 after unloading its cargo of salt, sailcloth, and, among other items, 96 golf clubs and 432 golf balls consigned to David Deas, a Scottish emigrant who had become a successful Charleston merchant.

Through its three centuries of business, The Tavern has endured the test of unstoppable and sometimes hard-pressed time. It survived the Revolutionary War and the incessant pummeling from the Federal cannons of the Civil War, not to leave unmentioned the numerous historic fires and catastrophic earthquake of 1886 that brought down hundreds of Charleston's buildings.

It has been known by more than a few names such as The Tavern on the Bluff's, Harris's Tavern, and Mrs. Coates Tavern by the Bay. In 1903, it became a "Whiskey Store" during an era when it was illegal to buy a drink, even if it was served in a teacup. Fronting as a barber shop through Prohibition, it sold liquor from a backroom. A latch door in the back of the shop led to an underground tunnel that once moved moonshine to speakeasies—then called "blind tigers."

The Blind Tiger Pub building on Broad Street has such an underground tunnel, which also can be entered through a latched door at the back of the building. Those wanting a drink would have to sneak one in one of the tunnel's many dark nooks. Whether the two tunnels connected is open to question. At this time, I must insert a bit of caution because like many stories from Charleston's past, you must measure its factuality with a grain of Carolina Gold. Following Repeal, The Tavern returned to legal status. It has been the nation's oldest Spirits store in continuous operation. Now that bit of information is as bona fide as its Bluffton Whiskey.

The original building is split into three different addresses. Due to law, spirits must be sold separately from wine and beer. The middle section, which sells wine and beer, is the most fascinating of the three. Its brick, front exterior has an arched double-door flanked by two arched windows, and directly above, a double-window second floor extension all painted in dark green. Inside, the current owners have preserved the shop's legacy by restoring its interior featuring its original hardwood flooring and brick walls with antique furnishings from around the world--a bookshelf from the Library of Congress and an artisan's working table from France. In one of the adjoining rooms is the mysterious latched-door leading to the underground. The third section of the building is unused--at one-time a gallery. Future plans are to open up the wall where the beer taps are presently and turn the unused section into a drinking space with a garden patio outside.

The Tavern specializes in local or rare spirits, like a five-grain bourbon made with a Carolina rice variety(Seashore Black Rye) once written off as extinct, and Carolina Gold; a black tea liqueur made from the only large-scale tea plantation in the U.S.(Charleston Tea Plantation); and a vodka made from a rye grain grown on South Carolina's Edisto Island. To acquaint you with the unfamiliar, the shop also offers weekly tastings.

The Tavern has been featured on Southern Charm, Moonshiners, History’s Most Haunted, and Atlas Obscura. With a multifaceted history and a singular focus, The Tavern at Rainbow Row stayed true to its reason for being and never stopped distributing booze. Now that makes for one happy sailor.

Unused space--future drinking space

Entrance to garden patio

 

Future garden patio

120 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC

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Five Points in Summerville--A Once Upon a Time Relic Explained or Unexplained

Summerville is growing, and as a result, is changing. However, Summerville has not forgotten its past. Its past is interwoven into what it is becoming today, and what it will be in the future. It celebrates the stories that have already been written through its projects, murals, arts, statues, books, magazines, festivals, and tours. Rich, entertaining stories explained and unexplained. The following unusual story, though not as well known and significant as the Pine Forest Inn, or the Railroad Station, or White Gables, you just might find compelling.

In Summerville, there is an area where three roads converge unto South Main Street to make a single intersection of five points. The roads are W. Carolina Ave, E. Carolina Ave, and Tupper Lane. I have driven through this intersection many times. Once upon a time a strange, potted ornament occupied a space at the point where W. Carolina Ave and Tupper Lane come together.

It was always just a brief curiosity because I never made any real effort to find out what the strange looking tree-like structure with blue bottles stuck on its branches was. Only by accident, I stumbled upon the answer. I was researching ghost stories in the Summerville area. Not surprising, it's called a blue bottle tree and quite common throughout the South. Perhaps, you remember seeing it as you navigated this highly traveled crossroads. I say remember because like many notable Summerville landmarks, it is no longer there.

What purpose did it serve? Was it meant to be just a decorative object to amuse passersby? Did its presence have a darker, deeper meaning for the individual or individuals who placed it there? After all, the blue bottle tree bears a cultural significance to some Lowcountry residents of times past.

Today, the blue bottle tree is mainly nothing more than a decoration people put in their gardens and on their lawns, but in history, the blue bottle tree is steeped in superstitions brought here by African slaves, although I should add, superstition to some, to others, deep rooted beliefs.

The color blue was believed to ward off spirits, more specifically, the evil kind. The blue bottles on the bottle tree are thought to entice the evil spirits into climbing inside during the evening hours where they become trapped. Then, the morning sun comes up and the sunlight kills the spirits. Quite an ingenious idea, if you believe in such things. Also, a nifty way of making good use of empty wine bottles, if you like the idea of a blue bottle tree in your yard.

Summerville's Five Points has a history. According to one study, a dark history. It is a well-known high-accident intersection. Between the years of 2015 to 2017, there were 60 crashes. Nine resulted in 13 persons injured and 51 resulted in property damage. Fortunately, there were no fatalities. To be noted, these statistics only covered a three year period. I took the picture of the blue bottle tree in 2015. So, when that study was done, it was already there. Yet, could this be the reason the blue bottle tree was placed at this crossroads in the first place, or was there something else more insidious going on with the properties around Five Points. Just down the road are the lion-topped brick pillars of 1006 South Main Street where the ghost of Mary Margaret resides.

Proposed roundabout

There are plans in the making to address the traffic problem at Five Points. One of them involves constructing a two-lane roundabout, which would not include Tupper Lane--it would be turned into a cul-de-sac. Thus, Five Points will fade away into history like the blue bottle tree that once graced the area to become just another footnote in Summerville's illustrious history like the Summerville Light.

I know there is someone out there in Summerville who knows the true reason why the blue bottle tree was placed there, when it was placed there, and who removed it. If not, it will become one of Summerville's Unexplained.

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